L. Kharkiv is a Ukrainian-American author-illustrator, a New Englander with an accent. She writes fairy tales rooted in Ukrainian folklore and spends her days chasing a cat off her sketchbooks. She spent her childhood in the magnificent city of Kharkiv, and all of her summers in a tiny Ukrainian village. The woods and the fields behind her grandparents’ house now provide lifelong inspiration for her work. Her debut, Into the Kryvolis Forest, is ready to launch into the world August 15, 2026.

Today, L. Kharkiv lives with her family in New Hampshire, where she welcomes every snowstorm, and Dunkin’ in hand, pursues the ambition of climbing every 4K peak in the state. In between writing marathons, she pours her time into the garden and constant rearranging of bookshelves. Her home art studio is overflowing with projects that swing from quilting squares to large-scale mixed media paintings.

L. Kharkiv is a member of IBPA and IPNE, and she is currently working on two picture books and an adult fantasy novel set in the same world.